Creeds were formulated to restate the beliefs of the Church in response to disagreements about what the Church teaches. Heresy is the rejection of a portions of church teaching, and heresies abounded in the early church as they do today. Discussing the Catholic faith and the creeds might be a little easier if you understand some of the heresies against which the Church was fighting, and against which her creeds boldly declared the truth.
Most of these heresies are alive and well today!
Sabellianism (modalism) holds that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected Son and Holy Spirit are different modes or aspects of one God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three distinct persons in God Himself (the Trinity, which the Church professes).
Arianism is the theological teaching that god the Father and God the Son are not of one being and substance.
Eutyches taught that the human nature of Christ was infused with the Divine nature, and that Christ's human nature was not like ours, denying that Christ was fully God and fully man.
Nestorianism held that, although God and man were joined in Christ, it was a parallel union, not a true joining. Hence, they could argue that only the human nature of Christ suffered, not God Himself.
The Gnostics believed that secret, saving knowledge would be imparted to believers, and they additionally believed that the material world was essentially evil and to be shunned. As a result, they rejected the notion that God would use the material world to communicate graces, as the Catholic Church does.
Church Councils ans the Creeds that came from them were often a response to these heresies. The creeds were a way for the church to reaffirm (not create from new cloth) the essentials of the faith she had always taught.
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